The Hindu Business Line : ONGC petro retailing plan in full swing

Having already finalised locations of a few, the company is confident of opening more than 10 outlets in the current fiscal. These will be under the brand name of either ONGC or MRPL in the metros and semi-metro cities.

Talking to Business Line here recently, Dr A.K. Balyan, Director in charge of business development and joint ventures, ONGC, said that the company has already firmed up locations of a number of outlets.

"The project is well on stream. It is making a slow progress owing to problems being faced in acquiring the requisite land at the right place. We have already finalised a few locations and will be opening a number of outlets in this fiscal."

ONGC and MRPL hold licences for opening 1,100 and 500 outlets respectively.

CBM contracts: Meanwhile, the company is in the final leg of awarding turnkey contracts for commercial production of coal-bed methane (CBM) in six coal blocks of the Ranigunj-Jharia belt in West Bengal-Jharkhand. The contracts will be awarded by the third week of this month.

Stating that ONGC has received bids from a number of foreign companies with experience in working CMB fields, Dr Balyan said that awardees would participate in the project through a consortium.

"This is a high technology area and ONGC alone cannot manage all areas of production. Foreign companies with proven track record will participate in the consortium as a turnkey service provider in areas like under-balance drilling, gas processing utilisation, de-watering and so on," he said.

The technology providers in the project will be offered "service charges" for their participation in the project.

Coal gasification: ONGC is also negotiating the terms and conditions of its proposed MoU with Coal India Ltd for underground coal gasification (UCG) programme.

The MoU is scheduled to be signed early next month in the presence of delegates from Stochinsky Institute of Russia. The institute will provide the technology for setting up a pilot project.

"The physical work for UCG exploration and production (on a pilot basis) will start some time early next fiscal following geological exploration and project evaluation," he said. CIL will be a joint venture partner in the project for commercial exploitation of UCG.